Tag: books

My Week in Books – 3rd December 2023

whatcathyreadnext3 Comments

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Diver and the Lover by Jeremy Vine, a book towards the #NetGalleyNovember reading challenge.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books Set in X and I went for Books Set in Eurovision Countries.   

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Thursday – I published my review of The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan, the December pick for BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub.

Friday – I shared my #NetGalleyNovember Wrap-Up.

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a chain from Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain to The Night Manager by John le Carré. 

New arrivals

At last, some new books! 

A Good Scent from a Strange MountainA Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (No Exit)

The 15 stories collected here, all written in the first person, blend Vietnamese folklore, the terrible, lingering memories of war, American pop culture and family drama.

Butler’s literary ventriloquism, as he mines the experiences of a people with a great literary tradition of their own, is uncanny; but his talents as a writer of universal truths is what makes this a collection for the ages.

A Dry Spell PBA Dry Spell by Clare Chambers (Cornerstone)

In 1976, four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them.

And repercussions are exactly what Guy doesn’t need. His wife, Jane, is moving swiftly from slightly eccentric to downright peculiar, their three-year-old daughter seems set on destroying Jane’s sanity, and now even God’s gone quiet on him.

As for Nina, she’s having enough trouble with her son, James. He’s got exams looming, a new girlfriend with pneumatic breasts and now, it seems, he is on drugs. Nina certainly won’t welcome any ghosts from the past…

Life isn’t going smoothly for anyone. But when Hugo, long-forgotten agent of misfortune, threatens to pay them all a visit, disaster seems unavoidable.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Binding by Bridget Collins
  • Book Review: The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn
  • My Five Favourite November 2023 Reads

#NetGalleyNovember 2023 Wrap-Up @NeverEndingNG

whatcathyreadnext2 Comments

Another NetGalleyNovember has come to an end. This month long readathon is about reading books on your NetGalley shelf with the aim of ending up with a better NetGalley ratio then when you started. So, how did I get on?

Well, I managed to read the number of books I aimed for and increased my NetGalley ratio by more than my original target. I’m really happy with this result. The challenge gave me the motivation to read some books that have been languishing in my virtual TBR pile for way too long.

I constructed my reading list based on the #NetGalleyNovember Bingo card and stuck to it, managing to match all but one of the categories. I never seem to have a book whose title begins with ‘N’!  Links from the titles will take you to my review.

Newest approval: The Teacher by Tim Sullivan (review to follow for blog tour in January 2024)
Published this year: The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou
New to you author: Mrs Whistler by Matthew Pamplin
Most anticipated: Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
Buddy read: Rebellion (Eagles of Empire #22) by Simon Scarrow (not technically a buddy read but I took part in the blog tour)
Green cover: The Diver and the Lover by Jeremy Vine
Title beginning with ‘N’: X
One you’ve been putting off: Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei (it’s over 500 pages)
Oldest approval: The Binding by Bridget Collins (review to follow)